Share your experience abroad and take TWO WEEKS OF SPANISH COURSE for free in any of our schools!!COINED International hosts an annual video contest for all currently enrolled and past participants who have traveled and participated at a COINED program within the past year.The following prizes will be awarded for the winning participant video submissions:

1st Place: 2 weeks of 20 group lessons/week Spanish course at any of the COINED locations

2nd Place: 1 week of 20 group lessons/week Spanish course at any of the COINED locations

3rd Place: 2 day excursion wherever you decide to travel for a COINED program

Runner-up: 1 day excursion wherever you decide to travel for a COINED program

All winning pieces will be published on the COINED International website and some within the organization social networking profiles.

The title "Share YOUR NEW World" is meant to suggest the changes in perception and understanding, as well as in place, that result from your cultural immersion program.

What We Are Looking For in the Student Writing Contest Think about what you were looking for when you were planning to study, travel, work, or live abroad as a student:

What did you need to know and how did COINED help you with that?

Once you were abroad, what did you wish you had known before you left? How did COINED support you on this?

Since you returned, how have you been able to fit what you did and learned abroad into your life—academic, career, and otherwise?

Think of yourself as an adviser or counselor and your viewer as a student like yourself before you decided to travel abroad.

Be specific: Vague and flowery evocations of the place(s) you were and what a wonderful time you had there are not helpful to someone preparing for his or her own trip with COINED.

Think of yourself as a journalist seeking to tell a story with as much objectivity as possible in order to reach a wide and educated audience.

Emphasize essential practical information such as how you selected a program or destination.

* Well-researched supporting material greatly increases the likelihood of selection as a winner; we cannot emphasize enough the importance of providing others practical information which they can use.

Think of yourself as an adviser or counselor and your reader as someone like yourself before you went abroad. Be specific and to the point: Narrative descriptions of your own experiences and responses to them (diaries) are not generally helpful to someone preparing for their own trip. When talking about a specific program (a “Participant Report”), be critical but remember that the appropriateness of the program depends upon the individual. What was right (or perhaps wrong) for you might be wrong (or right) for another student.

LengthVideo should be 4 to 6 minutes.

Video Contest Deadline The Contest begins October 12, 2009, and all entries must be received by March 12, 2010. COINED will require first-time Worldwide Electronic rights for all COINED will reserve the right to republish the video in a future website.

Winners will be chosen on or about June 15, 2010 and notified by phone, mail, or e-mail by June 30, 2010 for publication by July 1, 2010 or at such time as all winners have received award.

Contest Terms

There is no entry fee required for submissions. To register go here

Number of entries per person: as many as you wish.

The Prize: The Spanish course is non transferable and you may use it within the next two years of winning it. It may be taken at any of the COINED program locations and starting during any start date available.

Coined is not responsible for comments, feedback, and neither for the information posted. Used information May NOT be in the violation of any property rights.

COINED shall, in its absolute discretion, disqualify any individual found to be tampering with the operation of the Web site or the administration of the contest. If for any reason the contest is not capable of running as planned Coined reserves the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the contest, including cancellation of the method of entry and selection of the winners from previously received entries.

The contest is open to participants older than 18 years old.

All videos and published information in the contest become the property of Coined International. By entering the contest, participants consent to the use of their name and/or photograph in any publicity carried out by Coined International.

Submissions that have been published during the current academic year by home academic institutions are eligible.

COINED is not responsible for late, lost, misdirected, incomplete, or illegible e-mail or for any computer-related, online, or technical malfunctions that may occur in the submission process.

Submissions are considered void if illegible, incomplete, damaged, irregular, altered, counterfeit, produced in error, or obtained through fraud or theft.

Submissions will be considered made by an authorized account holder of the e-mail address submitted at time of entry.

Decisions of the judges are final.

Format

The video must be labeled “COINED-YOUR-world-video-contest” with your name/team name included in the title.

The video tags need to include COINED International, Study Spanish in (where you went), learn Spanish in (where you went), study abroad in (where you went).

Email a link of your video to info@intercioned.org and include a small explanation of your video, including the following information: your first and last name, address in your home country, email address, which COINED city you studied in and through which program.